Finance

Tech and semiconductor stocks extended their recent downturn as investors continued to worry about ballooning artificial intelligence capital investments. High-profile earnings reports from mega-cap entities revealed surging infrastructure budgets, sparking concern over delayed or absent short-term financial returns. Consequently, chipmakers and major hardware components led a sector-wide slide, dragging down the Nasdaq and hitting memory-focused exchange-traded funds particularly hard.

Crude oil benchmarks fell significantly on Friday, reversing a sharp multi-day rally that had pushed Brent crude over $100 per barrel. The downward movement followed reports that Pakistan is exploring a diplomatic path to restart peace talks between the United States and Iran under a China-initiated framework. The decline in oil prices provided slight relief to equity markets and helped ease the recent upward momentum in sovereign bond yields.

A new framework of global Section 301 tariffs targeting almost all major imports officially went into effect on Friday, succeeding previous temporary levies. The newly implemented administration policy imposes double-digit duties ranging from 10% to 12.5% on prominent trading partners. The structured shift aims to better withstand domestic legal scrutiny but adds a layer of uncertainty for corporate supply chains and multi-national earnings projections.